Friday, May 18, 2007

The ‘Yacub 7 Ali’ hoax

An elaborate racial hoax has been simmering on the Web for several months. It involves “Prophet Yacub 7 Ali,” a supposed black cult leader who teaches his followers to inflict skin cancers on white people… with just a look.

Wait, don’t laugh. There’s a much uglier underside to this hoax.

These so-called “Negro Sun Worshippers,” the bogus “journalists” writing about them, and the Internet posters calling attention to them have been appearing in online forums wherever brutal, real-life black-on-white crimes are being discussed.

The posters – masquerading as black men, and using various pseudonyms – celebrate black violence against whites. They point readers to a website promoting the “Sexiest & Hardest Ghetto Black Male Felon Bragging Rights Competition.”

In one case, they’re spreading a grotesque lie about a white female murder victim. (Basically saying she asked for it, out of extreme sexual masochism.)

It all seems calculated to stir up anger amongst white folks.

Sure enough, some gullible whites are swallowing it.

The hoaxsters have inserted themselves most visibly into online discussions of the “Knoxville atrocity” – the rape, torture and murder of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom last January, for which five black suspects have been charged.

Yesterday, the American Renaissance website – run by a highly educated, media-saavy white nationalist named Jared Taylor – got suckered.

American Renaissance offers a daily list of weblinks on topics such as non-white immigration, non-white crime, affirmative action and political correctness. Usually AmRen links to mainstream media outlets – Washington Post, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Associated Press, etc.

Not so with this story on Thursday: “Knox Blacks Celebrate Carjacking Rapists in ‘Party.’ ”

For this one, American Renaissance links to NowPublic.com – a so-called “participatory journalism site” where anybody can post anything. No oversight whatsoever.

Here’s what the story says:

“St. Nicolas Thief, president and founder of Black Poverty Speaks, along with many local Knoxville blacks… has organized a social action protest celebration championing Lemaricus Davidson and Letalvis Cobbins” – two of the accused slayers of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom.

“ ‘We’re coordinating the celebration to to jive with the march angry whites are planning in memory of the victims…,’ Thief, who is currently stationed in Knoxville, said.

(“St. Nicolas Thief” is one of the dubious monikers that pops up on websites and blogs associated with “Yacub 7 Ali.”)

Here’s how AmRen readers reacted to this “news” article:

“Outrageous. They are ‘celebrating’ a horrendous crime that defies description. This is the black mindset, we must be aware of how these people think to protect ourselves.”

“Interesting insight into the mentality of Blacks. This is very much an accurate portrayal of how most of them think.”

“I am actually sick to my stomach. … The fate that these two individuals met is unimaginable. Now, a story of a celebration for this garbage is just too much.”

“What can one expect? Blacks openly celebrated O.J.’s acquittal. … This nonsense is reason # 10 million why the races should never have been together.”

“Though our leftist press won’t report it, one hopes that blacks will have their ‘party’ and many others like it. They’ll dispel a great many multicultural myths by doing so. When liberal suburbanites learn that ‘white privilege’ entitles blacks to rape, sodomize, and murder them, they might just become white nationalists.”

The hoaxsters got what they wanted. Which was not, apparently, to make white readers such as these look foolish. But to make their blood boil.

By this morning, however, a few AmRen posters smelled something fishy. One wrote: “This is obviously a hoax. Look at the names. St. Nicolas Thief?”

Another poster apparently Googled the byline on the NowPublic.com article (“Jacque-Patrick Fitzgerald”) and found a May 9 story titled “Black Sun Worshippers Claim Responsibility for Greensburg Tornado.”

That piece quotes Yacub 7 Ali’s “spokesman,” Lucifer Nigaros, as giving thanks for the recent devastating twister in Kansas: “They are a wicked and vile people who live there and our prayers continue to be that God avenge us for the devastation whites caused the underprivileged in New Orleans.”

The enterprising AmRen poster concluded that “perhaps his extremely sick story about the [Knoxville] celebration should be taken with a pinch of salt.”

Who is behind this hoax? And why are they (or perhaps just a “he”) spending so much time and energy pretending to be black people who hate white people?

I don’t know. But I have been observing their mischief for weeks.

On January 11, a “Rice Whitman” posted this on the Jewish Defense League’s blog: “I am very disturbed with a new trend occuring in the New England states in the South East. Whites are being placed under curfew by blacks who maintain the ability to reradiate ultraviolet light and cause skin cancer. …

“Please focus attention on, a ‘Prophet’ Negroes are calling Yacub 7 Ali and his New Negro Movement. Do a Google search. … Thanks.”

A variation on the theme appeared on February 12, when “Parker Whittman” posted this on his LiveJournal blog: “Good and descent citizens of Savannah are walking amongst a new evil man and a new evil group of people. Evil is Evil! I will be the first man in this community to state aloud I have developed skin cancer and believe it to be a result of the radical blacks of this new negro sun worship sect. …”

All of these blogs debuted in February or April except for the “Waldorf Carathers” blog, which popped up last December. Back then, it was focused on a different black-on-white crime – the “Savannah Debutante Murder.” (Three black men were convicted of killing Jennifer Ross during a robbery the night of her debutante ball.)

All of these blogs deal with nothing else but the Yacub 7 Ali cult or a celebration of black-on-white violent crimes.

And, of course, there’s no mention of the existence of a “Yacub 7 Ali” anywhere on the World Wide Web except for this interlocking network of blogs, websites and discussion-board trolls.

Until a few days ago, the key websites of the Yacub 7 Ali hoax were www.svengalimedia.com, www.americanpatriate.com and www.yacub7ali.org. Those homepages are now inaccessible. (But here is a page from a Google cache.)

I have a question. If white people believe this stuff, doesn't that follow then (using the Auster et al logic) that white people are stupid?

I think we white people need to confront the lack of intelligence of our race. If we're going to discuss the relationship between skin color and intellectual capacity, we should appaerently begin in our own backyard.

For me the intertubes are like my car - I use it but I don't know how it works. Is it possible to track down the instigators of this crap and hold them up to ridicule? I don't know what else could be done. Unfortunately it doesn't sound like they've broken any laws, just ever boundary of ethics and decency.

Wow, this blog is really deep and insightful, I shall greatly enjoy the privilege of printing it out on high fibre paper and wipe my ass with it. I salute the black power movement and black panther party.

Like you say, it's not a crime. I just don't want this particular prank gaining traction on the Internet... then maybe even popping up in a legitimate newspaper somewhere. You never know with this kind of crap.

*****************************************If I am reading the data correctly, then the domain name "svengaliamedia" is registered with , and the site so named is hosted by, networksolutions.com.**************************************

Here is part of their terms of use (http://www.networksolutions.com/legal/aup.jsp):

I. You agree to comply with all applicable local, state, national and international laws and regulations regarding use of all services delivered by Network Solutions. The following are prohibited uses of our services:

1. Transmission, distribution, uploading, posting or storage of any material in violation of any applicable law or regulation is prohibited. This includes, without limitation, material protected by copyright, trademark, trade secret or other intellectual property right used without proper authorization, and material that is obscene, defamatory, libelous, unlawful, harassing, abusive, threatening, harmful, vulgar, constitutes an illegal threat, violates export control laws, hate propaganda, fraudulent material or fraudulent activity, invasive of privacy or publicity rights, profane, indecent or otherwise objectionable material of any kind or nature.

Latin glyphs are also known as Roman letters are also known as the letters you use every day to write in English, just like I am doing right now, slightly modified to fit the idiosyncrasies of the English language that is.

My name is Larry. And my brother Steven is the lone creator / author of Svengalimedia.

I’ve decided to share this information because simply I believe that people need and deserve to know the truth and all the facts before they can make reasonable, informed opinions and decisions.

First, Svengalimedia is not real. It is fiction. There is no business. There are no reporters or journalists or staff. There is no investigation. There are no facts. It is less than opinion. It is all pretend.

and the many other names used by svengalimedia and screaming journalism are pseudonyms used by Steve to argue his points and mask his identity in the various web sites and blogs.

I have spent some time trying to understand his feelings but I must admit I am at a loss. Although, in his writings Steve rails against the alleged privilege of those who have, he did not grow up poor or disadvantaged. His upbringing was suburban middle class. He attended private and public grade schools. His parents even paid for him to go to college where he earned a college degree. So I am not sure where his anger found its start. But he is angry and that is clear. And it is this anger that has given voice to svengali. And it is that voice that has caused us to hold our heads low in shame.

There is a second point that I would like to make. We, Steven’s family and friends, do not share in the opinion that people like Channon Christian, Jennifer Ross, Christopher Newson or any of the other victims of those heinous crimes deserved to die. What happened to those young people was terrible and the individuals who committed those crimes should be punished to the fullest extent of the law regardless of race or socioeconomic status.

I have tried to convince Steve to take the web site down to no avail. I have suggested to him to be more responsible with his voice and not post the outrageous, absurd and untrue. He does not listen. I have even put forward that if he truly feels as writes, he should sign his name to his work and openly stand behind it. He declined stating, “OH NO…. I’m not signing my real name to that!!!!”

In closing, I am writing to make this request of you. Now that you know the truth and you understand that svengalimedia is written with the sole purpose of igniting your emotions to the point that you are as angry as the writer, could you overlook the authors attempt to manipulate you and just ignore it. People like my brother need an audience. And without your attention they just fade away.